Director, stage and costume designer Matthias Engelmann was born and raised in Vienna, Austria. He studied art education and painting at the University of Applied Arts Vienna under Helga Philipp, before moving to the Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied stage and costume design under Erich Wonder. As his assistant he worked at the opera houses in Zurich, Stuttgart and at the Salzburg and Bayreuth Festival. Living in Hamburg since 2003, Matthias studied opera direction at the University of Music and Drama and finished his studies with an acclaimed production of Handel’s oratorio „Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno“ at the Hamburg State Opera.

 

He worked with directors Andreas Kriegenburg and Franz Wittenbrink, most important and formative was his collaboration with German director Peter Zadek on his last theatre productions before his death in 2009. His work as a director, stage and costume designer took Matthias Engelmann beside Germany to Austria, Albania, Poland and the Ukraine.

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Beside his work at the theatre, Matthias Engelmann participated in a Master's course in psychoanalytic cultural studies at the International Psychoanalytic University of Berlin.

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Matthias Engelmann received the master class award of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and was both a finalist at the European Opera direction Award (EOP) and the ring.award2011 at the opera house in Graz as well as the Komische Oper Berlin.

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